Additive manufacturing applications in the aerospace industry

The aerospace industry demands quality at every step——Based on strict requirements for accuracy, safety and reliability. As passenger traffic doubles and the pressure to reduce our ecological impact on the planet is greater than ever, manufacturers in the aerospace and aviation industry must respond21Century Aviation’s needs placed particular emphasis on the manufacturing of lightweight components. However, there are no shortcuts and manufacturers are constantly exploring new ways to design and build lighter aircraft in a faster time frame, while achieving rigorous certification before an aircraft can fly.

Demand for lightweight components drives demand for ways to manufacture aircraft components— For example, using advanced composite materials or additive manufacturing(AM)Waiting for new technology. However, any new design poses new certification challenges. Aerospace manufacturers often have their own workflows to overcome design certification hurdles, but this is no small feat and can be time-consuming.(sometimes several months)and that doesn’t include any bugs along the way. Determining the tests required to obtain certification to aerospace standards is a laborious and time-consuming exercise. As advances in engineering and manufacturing technologies increasingly facilitate innovation, the need to streamline certification activities is inevitable.

AMchallenge

To meet these challenges, aerospace manufacturers are increasingly using different materials for additive manufacturing.(Features advanced composite materials)Create lightweight components that cannot be produced using traditional processes. The use of additive manufacturing minimizes the use of materials, thereby reducing waste and energy consumption in the manufacturing process.

Designing lightweight parts using additive manufacturing requires a generative design approach that allows engineers to completely rethink existing structures without being limited by preconceived ideas about how parts and fused parts will look. By virtually creating part simulations, it reduces the number of physical tests without consuming raw materials. It also allows engineers to quickly adjust manufacturing processes until an efficient process is achieved.

Generative design has evolved from simply creating thousands of possibilitiesGUJATThe design has evolved to serve as an engineering “co-pilot” to rapidly design lightweight components to deliver the required engineering performance based on component loading, design envelope, and strength or stiffness goals.

△Generative design can be used as a “co-pilot” in engineering to quickly design lightweight parts

The performance benefits of generative design can be significant. An example is HexagonTesat-Spacecom GmbH & Co. KGAndASSETLightweight construction is particularly important when working on satellite carriers, as each additional kilogram leads to high space transportation costs. Hexagon technology was used to create a new, highly complex design to achieve maximum lightweight construction and perfectly matched and engineered to operational requirements. Using generative design, they redesigned the geometry of the support and reduced its weight55%stiffness increases79%. For high-precision applications like this, process simulations are used to compensate for powder bed fusion.(FBP)Thermodynamic problems introduced into the process play an important role.

Creating virtual prints, such as simulating a manufacturing process, reduces the number of physical tests and therefore imposes no requirements on the use of raw materials. Simply print the drawing to your computer and if it fails, make changes until the process works. For example, Safran usesSimufact Additivedevelop and virtually verify itsPPBFMetal parts are produced using an additive manufacturing process, thereby reducing physical iterations.

Composites further increase weight reduction and innovation potential. Engineers only need digital tools to provide the answers they need and ensure parts perform as expected.– This is a bit more complicated for anisotropic materials, because the microstructure of the material allows the material to perform better than metal, but also makes it very difficult to predict how the part will perform in its intended application. Benefit fromHexagonAndStratasys (3DInnovative leader in advanced printing and manufacturing services)Through this collaboration, engineers now have access to detailed models of their aerospace-approved materials as well as toolpaths for aerospace printers, so design engineers can use them to simulate the performance of parts printed with these materials.

computer aided engineering(CAE)With the tools, engineering teams can reliably replace machined metal parts with lightweight parts, taking full advantage of the properties of these reinforced polymers while avoiding over-engineering and costly material usage.

With such rigorously validated material behavior simulations, aerospace manufacturers can now benefit from unique insights into the properties of their materials and integrate polymers.3DBringing the benefits of printing to the highly regulated aerospace sector. For most aerospace applications, greater connectivity with data and the engineers themselves involved in the design phase is necessary to speed up the design process, provide more optimized end results and ultimately achieve flight certification.

The future of aerospace additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing is used to create highly optimized parts(like engine parts)Applications aimed at improving sustainability are increasing. For most aerospace applications, additive manufacturing teams need to be more connected to data and engineers from the design phase so they can validate technical performance and ultimately achieve flight certification more quickly.

For example, manufacturing designs can now be(DFAM)All steps are linked together so that engineers can optimize part topology and generate the support structures required for these “bionic” geometries, while making process adjustments and compensating for deformations.

△PassDfAMengineers can optimize part topology

However, to advance aerospace use and flight readiness, manufacturers must connect more data and people, both upstream and downstream, to validate manufacturing designs and ensure they will deliver flight parts efficient with guaranteed required processes and process repeatability. picture“Link“Some of these new collaborative digital reality platforms enable engineering teams to scaleDfAMThe solutions bring cohesion to the industry, providing “building blocks” for finite element analysis, process analysis and traceability so manufacturers can perform technical validation and improve processes faster to get correct results the first time. This therefore saves valuable time and resources while obtaining certification for sustainable aviation and new mobility concepts more quickly.

Source: 3D Printing Network